Interesting to see an Imperial Lager (and not, say, a malt liquor or an Imperial Pils) coming from Sri Lanka. Our interest is piqued.

Pours a bright, dusty golden color, with a few bub- bles rising to the top. A healthy white lace adorns the brew. Smells of refined honey and mild solvent alcohol and carries a sweet maltiness. At first whiff, it feigns a mead-like aroma. Smooth and crisp with a creamy, full body. The notes of fresh-cut grass and light sugar sweetness comes from the malt, while hop bitterness and flavor comes off faint but brash--enough to bal- ance all of the sweetness. Waves of grain and mild hop bitterness draw closer as the beer dries up. The alcoholic flavor stays clean (more or less) with a rose-like flavor; but it doesn't dry up completely, as the finish is only semi-dry with some residual malt sweetness.

If there is one attribute that sets this one apart from Lion's other lager, it's balance--and you thought we were gonna say the higher alcohol content. This beer has balance and it makes it that much more enjoyable. Pair it with chicken cutlets with linguini in Alfredo sauce.

More User Reviews:

Poured from 12 oz. bottle into a pint glass.*Note: Bottle states 8.8% Alcohol by Volume*

The brew pours a dark yellow gold in color with about 1/2" of head that dissipated quickly. No lacing to speak of. Aromas are average for the most part but light, and there is a whiff of alcohol - not incredibly attractive.

The taste was incredibly average, much like a typical American macro lager, but this isn't all a bad thing. For a brew this strong, it is actually a bit of a feat to pull of this average lager taste. There isn't any real heat from the alcohol and the overall body is still relatively light, though fulfilling.

This is fairly drinkable as far as flavor and enjoyability but the ABV catches up to you pretty quickly. Overall this was interesting but I don't know that I would go out of my way to try it again.

The beer pours a yellow color with a white head. The aroma is a mix of bread and lemons. The flavor is grain and bready malt. Fairy bland and not near as hoppy as I was expecting from an Imperial Pilsner. Medium mouthfeel and medium carbonation. Not a bad beer, just nothing that really stands out.

Taste: Wow, that does not taste the same as the somewhat dry, hoppy smell. Very, very sweet, like candy, but very peppery hops counter and are prominent at the finish. Tastes like a Malt Liquor with out of place hops. Cloying.

This brew poured a beautiful deep golden, almost orange color with a puffy white head. The nose is flowery with notes of vanilla and lemongrass. The moment you drink it your tastebuds begin to dance with sweet malty goodness of vanilla, plum, lemongrass, and cherry flavors. The finish lingers on the malt flavors which is perfectly balanced by the moderate hoppy bitterness. VERY smooth due to its lager style, but watch out with the 8.0%ABV! This beer is a real gem!

Looks golden clear orange with a good white head until it turns to a patchy lace-less layer. Nose is sweet, lightly candy-like, lemongrassy, bready with underlying earthiness perhaps. Its does seem like a big-afied version of the lager, and I don't think they used corn + rice etc. Maybe, but if so, they did a good job making it less obvious. Taste is likewise. As for the imperial factor, you can tell its a strong beer by nose and taste but the alcohol adds a complimentary edge if anything. Dry finish and medium lager-clear body.

Big glaring white head is puffy and foamy like meringue, and the color is yellow turning to golden. Very nice, but there are some troubling, weird-ass floaters in here. They don't look like yeast or other sediment, but like tiny sea monkeys. This glass is as clean as always, so I have no idea how to score this. I'll knock the 4 down to a 3.5 and hope the tiny seahorse-like chunks are a one-time-only fluke.

Aroma is plain old lager, nothing interesting about it. Hay/straw, light lemon, not much else.

Flavor-wise alcohol rides through quite prominently, giving it a kind of aftershave/cheap alcohol slant. Too bad, because the hop/malt hookup is nice, offering spicy bitterness and candy sweetness. Light butterscotch, some grassy bitterness, sweet caramel-ish malt, even something that reminds of lemon bars, complete with a mellow tartness and brown sugar crumble topping. Somewhere between an Imperial Pils and Malt Liquor. Unfortunately it's just too boozy for its own good, which threatens the positive attributes of this beer.

Slick and creamy texture, buttery bordering on syrupy, yet also having plenty of carbonation (the "bite" that the bottle promises). This I like.

There's a great beer in here somewhere. This is my first "Euro Strong Lager" and I like the concept, just as I do the Imperial Pils concept. But this needs some cleaning up, mostly in the alcohol department. As for the floaters, I've got a few more of these, so I'll adjust score accordingly in the future, if necessary. [Addendum: Not necessary. They all had Sea Monkeys]

I'm a bit surprised at the very slightly hazed orange, honey colored body, but not at all about the poofy dirty white head.

Grass, honey, and some pils malt in the nose.

Really sweet and honey-filled with no balance. I guess it's better than Malt Liquor, but not by much. If you wish hard enough there's some grassiness. Also present is the white grape I get from many sweet, pale beers, usually lagers. Apple juice concentrate.

Expectedly slurry and syrup-like. This could even do with stronger carbonation. The sweetness is only more oppressive because of the thickness.

How do you like that? All the way from 2.0-4.0 go my ratings. How novel, kind of like this Ceylonian Imperial Lager. Do not mistake this for another Stout from Lion as I did. I'll reiterate; too sweet, not balanced, too still.

Pours a clear golden color with a distinct copper hue. An impressive vanilla colored head develops at the top and reaches over two fingers. It was more resilient than one would expect and left a lighter, sticky lacing on the glass. I wasn't expecting much and it surprised me.

The nose disappoints. It's a little weird and funky. Seriously. There's a musky, funky smell that borders on bad. It doesn't quite reach that level, but it is out of place. Ther's some sweet malt, grain, and earthy notes that are appreciable otherwise. Alcohol is mildly noticeable, but doesn't offend by any means. All in all, it's weird and doesn't smell good. But, doesn't smell bad. Sounds average, no?

The flavor is a little better. It starts out sweet and a tad malty. Some variety of hops provides some buzziness and a grainy, earthy flavor. The sole reason the flavor is better is because that funky component in the nose didn't show up in the flavor. That's a good thing for this one. It doesn't have a great flavor by any means, but it's not all that bad. Perhaps prior experience is skewing perspective. More on that later. Alcohol is noted, but is pretty well restrained. It's not even close to being warm or hot. Another positive. Finishes sweet and earthy.

This one's light bodied, but is pushing medium. Carbonation is active and a tad crisp. It's not smooth, but it is above average. Drinkability, on the other hand, is average. The flavor's not good enough to warrant repeat visits and it's too strong at 8.8% (as my bottle indicates). I don't the drinkability force is strong with many Euro Strong Lagers.

Lion Imperial Lager's an okay beer. It's probably above average overall. I'm reminded of my recent experience with Cisk XS Extra Lager (which was horrendous) and believe this is a much better take on a Euro Strong Lager. This one's not quite good, but it's not the worst out there. Fix that funky nose and it'd improve quite a bit. Not exactly recommended, but you can do worse.

A strong pour yields a massive 3-finger off-white head that nearly spills over the brim of the glass. The body is a perfectly clear golden yellow with some small carbonation bubbles creeping slowly toward the surface. The head recedes quickly to a thin, clumpy dusting. Thick lacing clings to the glass in massive clumps.

Sweet, bready malt aromas mix with honey and a faint floral hops smell. Overall the nose has a somewhat musty characteristic and is rather weak.

Light bready malts flavors flow over the tongue while a sharp, peppery spice stings the tip. The flavor is incredibly sweet and honey-like. It actually has an almost apple juice flavor to it.

Medium bodied with moderate carbonation, this beer is very drinkable. The body has an odd syrup texture about it but is not sticky at all.

Poured from a brown 11.2 oz. bottle. Has a golden color with a small head. Smell is of mild malts and alcohol. Taste is like the smell, alcohol with some malts. Feels light in the mouth and one of these was enough for me. Overall this offering is mediocre at best.

I'm a little jaded with this review but I guess my impulsiveness serves me right. Its called Imperial, the bottle is black, and I've had Lion Stout before and enjoyed it. So Lion Imperial to my surprise... is a pilsner.

A: Poured a clear, bright golden-bronze with a thin, sudsy white head that quickly dissipated. Visible carbonation was light.

S: a very soft citrusy hopping of oranges and lemons.

T: a sweet buttery-citric maltiness with fresh oranges and lemons. On the finish was a sour malting, dry oranges, lemon grind and a dry floral hop fade. The abv% of 8.0 was fairly well hidden behind the sweet malting upfront. The overall flavor I found to be a little strange and odd yet intriquing with a big hoppy fade with some sour lemons on the finish.

M: medium-full with a nice viscosity and syrupy feel. Some sour malt and dried floral lemony hopping coats the tongue.

D: Definitly not a session lager. Has a big sweet buttery-citric flavor that makes this drink like a macro in the beginning, but the big hoppy nature in the finish gives it some credit. Worth a try, but not a six-pack.

Two reasons I tried this: 1) Loved their Export Stout, but also 2) seeing the imperial pilsner designation, figured that if the average BMC is loosely based on a pilsner, then getting an import pilsner -- even more so, an imperial one -- would provide opportunity to taste How It's Supposed To Be. Where's my mug...

Pours a fizzy copper tone, white bubbly head of about an inch that melts away pretty quick. Don't smell much, maybe apple & a bit of indistinguishable spice (clove? Kind of...). Take a swig, and get pretty much the same thing, with a slight bit of caramel. Not much though, it's ridiculously subtle to near nonexistent. Goes down like a spritzer or wine cooler.

This is one of those beers where, when getting into another style, you conclude that either it's a bad example of the style or that style is just not for you. I'm hoping the former, because I've had malt liquors that were better than this.

Bottle into pint glassA – 3 finger almost white head, while fizzy still had nice retention, a slightly hazy golden with brown notes, scattered lacing to a pillow layer 3.5S – Mildly sweet malts and a blend of herbal citrus grassy characteristics, slightly astringent 3T – An off citric sweetness, mild alcohol, finish becomes a dark sweet bread like menagerie of tastes that leave me hanging, infected bottle crossed by mind, did not enjoy 2.0M – light moderate body, a bit thicker than I expected, no vote on if the ample carbonation added or detracted 3O – An odd tasting malt pilsner I will not seek out again, characteristics of cider, unless you seek this style I would not recommend, finished the bottle and won’t be returning 2.5